R.I.P. Michael Parks, Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith favorite
Michael Parks, the longtime character actor who was a favorite of directors like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Kevin Smith, has died, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The news was confirmed by his agent, who declined to name a cause of death. He was 77.
Parks was born in 1940 in Corona, California, where he worked manual labor jobs like picking fruit and driving trucks before his breakthrough on the ABC sitcom The Real McCoys in 1961. Although he also appeared in films during the decade, he remained an in-demand TV actor throughout the 1960s, starring in the counterculture drama series Then Came Bronson in 1969-1970. (Parks also recorded the theme song to the show, “Long Lonesome Highway,” which led to a three-album run at MGM.)